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The Declaration 
of Independence 























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The Declaration 
of Independence 













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The Unanimous Declaration 
of the Thirteen United 
States of America 


When, in the course of hu¬ 
man events, it becomes neces¬ 
sary for one people to dissolve 
the political bands which have 
connected them with one an¬ 
other, and to assume, among 
the powers of the earth, the 
separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and 
of nature's God entitle them, 
a decent respect to the opin¬ 
ions of mankind requires that 
they should declare the causes 
which impel them to the sep¬ 
aration. 









We hold these truths to be 
self-evident: that all men are 
created equal; that they are 
endowed, by their Creator, 
with certain inalienable rights; 
that among these are life, lib¬ 
erty, and the pursuit of hap¬ 
piness. That to secure these 
rights, governments are in¬ 
stituted among men, deriving 
their just powers from the con¬ 
sent of the governed; that 
whenever any form of govern¬ 
ment becomes destructive of 
these ends, it is the right of the 
people to alter or to abolish it, 
and to institute a new gov¬ 
ernment, laying its foundation 
on such principles, and or- 






ganizing its powers in such 
form as to them shall seem 
most likely to effect their safe¬ 
ty and happiness. Prudence, 
indeed, will dictate that gov¬ 
ernments long established 
should not be changed for 
light and transient causes; 
and accordingly, all experience 
hath shown that mankind are 
more disposed to suffer while 
evils are sufferable, than to 
right themselves by abolishing 
the forms to which they are 
accustomed. But when a long 
train of abuses and usurpa¬ 
tions, pursuing invariably the 
same object, evinces a design 
to reduce them under absolute 


despotism, it is their right, it 
is their duty to throw off such 
government, and to provide 
new guards for their future 
security. Such has been the 
patient sufferance of these col¬ 
onies ; and such is now the ne¬ 
cessity which constrains them 
to alter their former systems 
of government. The history 
of the present king of Great 
Britain is a history of repeated 
injuries and usurpations, all 
having in direct object the es¬ 
tablishment of an absolute 
tyranny over these States. To 
prove this, let facts be submit^ 
ted to a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to 









laws the most wholesome and 
necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his gov¬ 
ernors to pass laws of immedi¬ 
ate and pressing importance, 
unless suspended in their oper¬ 
ation till his assent should be 
obtained; and when so sus¬ 
pended, he has utterly neglect¬ 
ed to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass 
other laws for the accommoda¬ 
tion of large districts of peo¬ 
ple, unless those people would 
relinquish the right of repre¬ 
sentation in the legislature—a 
right inestimable to them, and 
formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together 







legislative bodies at places un¬ 
usual, uncomfortable, and dis¬ 
tant from the repository of 
their public records, for the 
sole purpose of fatiguing them 
into compliance with his meas¬ 
ures. 

He has dissolved represen¬ 
tative houses repeatedly, for 
opposing, with manly firm¬ 
ness, his invasions on the 
rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long 
time after such dissolutions, to 
cause others to be elected; 
whereby the legislative pow¬ 
ers, incapable of annihilation, 
have returned to the people at 
large, for their exercise, the 




State remaining, in the mean¬ 
time, exposed to all the dan¬ 
gers of invasion from without, 
and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to pre¬ 
vent the population of these 
States; for that purpose ob¬ 
structing the laws for natural¬ 
ization of foreigners; refusing 
to pass others to encourage 
their migration hither, and 
raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the ad¬ 
ministration of justice, by re¬ 
fusing his assent to laws for 
establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges depen¬ 
dent on his will alone, for the 



tenure of their offices, and the 
amount and payment of their 
salaries. 

He has erected a multitude 
of new offices, and sent hither 
swarms of officers, to harass 
our people, and eat out their 
substance. 

He has kept among us, in 
times of peace, standing 
armies, without the consent of 
our legislatures. 

He has affected to render 
the military independent of, 
and superior to, the civil 
power. 

He has combined with 
others to subject us to a juris¬ 
diction foreign to our Consti- 










tution, and unacknowledged 
by our laws; giving his assent 
to their acts of pretended 
legislation: 

For quartering large bodies 
of armed troops among us: 

For protecting them, by a 
mock trial, from punishment 
for any murders which they 
should commit on the inhabi¬ 
tants of these States: 

For cutting off our trade 
with all parts of the world: 

For imposing taxes on us 
without our consent: 

For depriving us, in many 
cases, of the benefits of trial by 
jury: 

For transporting us beyond 









seas to be tried for pretended 
offences: 

For abolishing the free sys¬ 
tem of English laws in a 
neighboring province, estab¬ 
lishing therein an arbitrary 
government, and enlarging its 
boundaries, so as to render it 
at once an example and fit in¬ 
strument for introducing the 
same absolute rule into these 
colonies: 

For taking away our char¬ 
ters, abolishing our most valu¬ 
able laws, and altering, funda¬ 
mentally, the forms of our 
government: 

For suspending our own 
legislatures, and declaring 



themselves invested with 
power to legislate for us in all 
cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated govern¬ 
ment here by declaring us out 
of his protection, and waging 
war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, 
ravaged our coasts, burnt our 
towns and destroyed the lives 
of our people. 

He is at this time transport¬ 
ing large armies of foreign 
mercenaries to complete the 
works of death, desolation, 
and tyranny already begun 
with circumstances of cruelty 
and perfidy scarcely paralleled 
in the most barbarous ages, 



and totally unworthy the head 
of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fel¬ 
low-citizens, taken captive on 
the high seas, to bear arms 
against their country, to be¬ 
come the executioners of their 
friends and brethren, or to fall 
themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic in¬ 
surrections among us, and has 
endeavored to bring on the 
inhabitants of our frontiers, 
the merciless Indian savages, 
whose known rule of warfare 
is an undistinguished destruc¬ 
tion of all ages, sexes, and con¬ 
ditions. 

In every stage of these op- 









pressions we have petitioned 
for redress in the most humble 
terms; our repeated petitions 
have been answered only by 
repeated injury. A prince 
whose character is thus 
marked by every act which 
may define a tyrant is unfit to 
be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting 
in attentions to our British 
brethren. We have warned 
them, from time to time, of at¬ 
tempts by their legislature to 
extend an unwarrantable 
jurisdiction over us. We have 
reminded them of the circum¬ 
stances of our emigration and 
settlement here. We have ap- 









pealed to their native justice 
and. magnanimity, and we 
have conjured them by the ties 
of our common kindred to dis¬ 
avow these usurpations, which 
would inevitably interrupt our 
connections and correspond¬ 
ence. They, too, have been 
deaf to the voice of justice and 
consanguinity. We must, 
therefore, acquiesce in the ne¬ 
cessity which denounces our 
separation, and hold them, as 
we hold the rest of mankind, 
enemies in war, in peace 
friends. 

We, therefore, the repre¬ 
sentatives of the United States 
of America, in General Con- 




gress assembled, appealing to 
the Supreme Judge of the 
world for the rectitude of our 
intentions, do, in the name and 
by the authority of the good 
people of these Colonies, sol¬ 
emnly publish and declare that 
these United Colonies are, and 
of right ought to be, free and 
independent States; that they 
are absolved from all alle¬ 
giance to the British crown, 
and that all political connec¬ 
tion between them and the 
State of Great Britain is, and 
ought to be, totally dissolved; 
and that, as free and indepen¬ 
dent States, they have full 
power to levy war, conclude 



peace, contract alliance, estab¬ 
lish commerce, and to do all 
other acts and things which in¬ 
dependent States may of right 
do. And for the support of 
this declaration, with a firm 
reliance on the protection of 
Divine Providence, we mu¬ 
tually pledge to each other our 
lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor. 

Signed by order and in be¬ 
half of the Congress. 

JOHN HANCOCK, 
President, 

Attested, 

Charles Thompson 
Secretary. 










NEW HAMPSHIRE 


JosiAH Bartlett 
William Whipple 
Matthew Thornton 


MASSACHUSETTS BAY 

Samuel Adams 
John Adams 
Robert Treat Paine 
Elbridge Gerry 

RHODE ISLAND, &C. 

Stephen Hopkins 
William Ellery 











CONNECTICUT 

Roger Sherman 
Samuel Huntington 
William Williams 
Oliver Wolcott 

NEW YORK 

William Floyd 
Philip Livingston 
Francis Lewis 
Lewis Morris 

NEW JERSEY 

Richard Stockton 
John Witherspoon 
Francis Hopkinson 
John Hart 
Abraham Clark 






PENNSYLVANIA 

Robert Morris 
Benjamin Rush 
Benjamin Franklin 
John Morton 
George Clymer 
James Smith 
George Taylor 
James Wilson 
George Ross 


DELAWARE 

Casar Rodney 
George Read 
Thomas M'Kean 




MARYLAND 

Samuel Chase 
William Paca 
Thomas Stone 
Charles Carroll 

of Carrollton 

VIRGINIA. 

George Wythe 
Richard Henry Lee 
Thomas Jefferson 
Benjamin Harrison 
Thomas Nelson, Jr. 
Francis Lightfoot Lee 
Carter Braxton 








NORTH CAROLINA 

William Hooper 
Joseph Hewes 
John Penn 

SOUTH CAROLINA 
Edward Rutledge 
Thomas Haywood, Jr. 
Thomas Lynch, Jr. 
Arthur Middleton 

GEORGIA 

Button Gwinnett 
Lyman Hall 
George Walton 




















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